Asia

Report finds lack of qualified personnel key obstacle to offshore development

Singapore: Rising energy demand from Asia Pacific countries is a key factor driving the growth in regional offshore oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) activities.

In response to this, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Singapore, Innovation Norway in alliance with DNV and Norwegian Business Association (Singapore) is staging a conference today in Singapore.

The conference will examine and draw practical conclusions about ‘The Challenges of Offshore E&P in Asia Pacific’. A specially commissioned report into the critical trends of the sector in the region will be unveiled at the half-day event.

The report, by consultants Douglas Westwood, was commissioned by Norwegian classification society Det Norske Veritas (DNV), Innovation Norway and the Norwegian Embassy.

John Westwood, group chairman of London-based energy research consultancy Douglas-Westwood, will announce the findings of the report.

Based on interviews with 44 leading players in Asia Pacific’s offshore E&P business, the report sets out the challenges facing the sector in terms of economics, regulations, operations and technology, and how these might impact on activity.

The survey spans the drilling, engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and operational phases of offshore oil & gas fields.

Three main trends formed the report’s backdrop:
• Expectations that Asia-Pacific (APAC) will to continue to lead global energy demand growth
• Deepwater will play a key role in the region’s oil & gas production
• Cost increases pose a major threat to the growth of E&P activity

The report suggests that over the next five years nearly 7,000 regional offshore wells are expected to be drilled, costing around $74bn. Regional deepwater oil, currently 7% of offshore production, is expected to reach 17% by 2020.

Management and operational procedures, plus requirements for more and higher technical specifications for drilling equipment were cited by 71% of interviewees as an important challenge. Most respondents agreed that increasing regulatory constraints could pose significant challenges for operators in the region.

The largest operational challenge for 90% of survey respondents was a lack of qualified human resources, making it the most pressing and prevalent challenge in the industry today.  . [16/04/13]

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